AdaniConneX’s planned data centre campuses in Visakhapatnam, being developed in partnership with Google, will use air-cooled systems to eliminate the need for water-based evaporative cooling and keep freshwater consumption across three sites to less than the volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, according to the project details.
Visakhapatnam is attracting investments in data centres and supporting digital infrastructure as companies expand capacity to meet rising demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services. Water consumption has emerged as a key concern in the debate over Andhra Pradesh’s push to attract large data centre investments, as these facilities require substantial cooling capacity to support energy-intensive computing and artificial intelligence workloads. The controversy intensified after Andhra Pradesh approved Google’s proposed AI data centre hub in Visakhapatnam, being developed with AdaniConneX, with environmental activists questioning its proximity to the Mudasarlova Reservoir, a source of drinking water for the city, and the adjoining Kambalakonda Wildlife Sanctuary. AdaniConneX, a joint venture between Adani Enterprises and US-based EdgeConneX, is developing a nationwide network of hyperscale data centres to cater to growing demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital services.
The campuses at Mudasarlova and Tarluvada are part of a proposed data centre development with a capacity of about 1 gigawatt, as Visakhapatnam seeks to emerge as a major hub for artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure. The government has said the proposed data centre ecosystem, if expanded to 6.5 gigawatts, could require around 3 TMC of water annually, while Google has said it plans to use advanced air-cooling technology.
